Effects of Medium-chain Triglyceride on Growth Performance and Serum Biochemical Indices in Broilers

The study was conducted to investigate the effects of medium-chain triglyceride replacing the soybean oil in the basal diet on growth performance and serum biochemical indices of broilers.One hundred and forty four healthy,similar body weights AA broilers at the age of 14 days were randomly assigned to four groups with six replicates ger group and six broilers per replicate.Groups A,B,C and D were respectively fed with 0,0.6%,1.2% and 2% medium-chain triglyceride substituted the equivalent amount of soybean oil (using corn flour to balance the energy levels in each group) .The test lasted for 28 days and the indexes were measured once every two weeks.The results showed that the average daily gain and average daily feed intake of groups B,C and D were higher than that of group A,and the F/G was lower than group A.The average daily gain of groups C and D at 28 to 42 days old and group D at 14 to 42 days old were significantly higher than that of group A (P < 0.05).The serum glucose,total content of amino acid,total protein and albumin of groups B,C and D at age of 28 and 42 days old were higher than that of group A,while the serum triglyceride,total cholesterol and urea nitrogen levels were lower.The total cholesterol content at 42 days old and triglyceride concentrations at 28 days old of group C were significantly lower than those of group A (P < 0.05).The results indicated that medium-chain triglyceride could raise average daily gain and reduce the total cholesterol content and triglyceride concentrations of broilers,which were useful for improving the growth performance.